Loss of an American hero

Medal of Honor recipient Desmond T. Doss Sr. died at age 87 last week.

Doss grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, whose tenets forbid bearing arms. However, when he was called to the draft, the lanky native Virginian declined a religious exemption that would have allowed him to continue working in a shipyard. He served in the Army with the designation of conscientious objector, but he detested that phrase. He preferred "conscientious cooperator."

"I felt like it was an honor to serve God and country," he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1998. "I didn't want to be known as a draft dodger, but I sure didn't know what I was getting into."

How many men survived the war to come home and start families because of Doss' heroism? A bunch.

Sent to the Pacific, he saw combat on Leyte and Guam. His actions between April 29 and May 21, 1945, near Urasoe on Okinawa, were cited when he received the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor.

At the time, he was in the medical detachment of the 77th Infantry Division. A battalion of his comrades was fired on by the Japanese as its members scaled a 400-foot escarpment.

Refusing cover, Mr. Doss carried each of the 75 casualties one-by-one to the edge of the cliff and helped lower them by rope to safety. He continued similar rescue missions over the following days, also tending to the wounded by administering plasma as mortar fire struck around him. During a nighttime attack May 21 near Shuri, he received injuries from a grenade blast. Instead of risking the larger mission, he spent hours nursing his wounds. Seeing a soldier in worse condition nearby, he directed help to tend to that man first. Still in range of enemy fire, he was hit and suffered a compound fracture in an arm. "With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and then crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station," his Medal of Honor citation read. "Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions Pfc. Doss saved the lives of many soldiers," the citation continued. "His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty."

In October 1945, then-Cpl. Doss received the medal from President Harry S. Truman during a White House ceremony.

A great man. I pray he rests in peace.